Monday was a big day for us. It was Gage's 5th birthday, his first day of school and the state fair to celebrate everything. It was a great day with lots of fun and some pretty tired campers at the end of the river- and the kids were tired too.
The state fair has a atmosphere all it own. Less than DisneyWorld but more the neighborhood carnival - there is a little something for everyone. From spin art to an Idaho baked potato - made completely out of ice cream, we managed to pack quite a bit into this fabulous afternoon. When daddy and poppa got there, we finished out the day with some fun rides. Morgan had no fear and wanted to back again and again.
We completely wipe out the notion that fair food has any calories and eat most everything we can get our hands on. The cost of food at the fair bears no resemblance to the food prices outside of the fairgrounds. We allow ourselves to be taken advantage of as we eat that second Pronto Pup or chocolate covered banana. We head home with our wallets much lighter than when we came in and our tummies, feeling somewhat in an uproar.
As we reenter the Real World, we settle back to the familiar setting where a Diet Coke doesn't cost $3.50 an ounce but with a sense that our time in fair world was worth it. A rite of passage where although we could have taken the kids to ToysRUs and bought them anything they wanted, for what it cost to win that stuffed animal - we were sharing an important memory with them, or - we are just plain crazy...
